A field of application for a threaded drive of this type for converting a rotational movement into a translational movement is the automobile industry where large-scale production is required while demands on the precision are not of foremost concern. A cost-efficient solution with high degree of efficiency and good load-carrying capability is, however, demanded. German publication DE-OS 21 50 739 discloses such a screw mechanism which has rolling bodies in the form rollers, and includes a massive nut body and two annular cam members which are also massive and have regions with ring-shaped cam surfaces for engagement in ring-shaped recesses on the end face of a cage for the rollers. This design is highly complicated to manufacture, so that a very expensive construction is effected.
German publication DE-OS 22 31 541 discloses a screw mechanism in which a plurality of balls roll between a helical track on a spindle and a helical track of a spindle nut. The spindle nut is made of sheet metal and received in an additional sleeve. For returning the rolling bodies, a circumferential area of the nut has openings to enable the balls to reach the neighboring track winding of the threaded spindle. The additional sleeve is, i.a., required to close the openings to the outside.